cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important

Film by Doctors Without Borders: Inside Yemen: 5 Days in an Emergency Hospital

Witness the scenes at a hospital in Mocha, Yemen, providing emergency care just two hours away from the frontlines. Over five days, teams from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) treat patients with gunshot wounds, children with landmine injuries, and pregnant women struggling with complicated deliveries. The MSF hospital in Mocha is the only place where civilians can get emergency surgery in this war-torn region in southwestern Yemen.

The US shipped weapons and secrets to the Saudis and Emiratis. Now, some are in the hands of fighters linked to al Qaeda and Iran.

Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners have transferred American-made weapons to al Qaeda-linked fighters, hardline Salafi militias, and other factions waging war in Yemen, in violation of their agreements with the United States, a CNN investigation has found.

The weapons have also made their way into the hands of Iranian-backed rebels battling the coalition for control of the country, exposing some of America's sensitive military technology to Tehran and potentially endangering the lives of US troops in other conflict zones.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, its main partner in the war, have used the US-manufactured weapons as a form of currency to buy the loyalties of militias or tribes, bolster chosen armed actors, and influence the complex political landscape, according to local commanders on the ground and analysts who spoke to CNN.

By handing off this military equipment to third parties, the Saudi-led coalition is breaking the terms of its arms sales with the US, according to the Department of Defense. After CNN presented its findings, a US defense official confirmed there was an ongoing investigation into the issue.

The revelations raise fresh questions about whether the US has lost control over a key ally presiding over one of the most horrific wars of the past decade, and whether Saudi Arabia is responsible enough to be allowed to continue buying the sophisticated arms and fighting hardware. Previous CNN investigations established that US-made weapons were used in a series of deadly Saudi coalition attacks that killed dozens of civilians, many of them children.

The developments also come as Congress, outraged with Riyadh over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year, considers whether to force an end to the Trump administration's support for the Saudi coalition, which relies on American weapons to conduct its war.

The war split the country in two, and with it came the weapons -- not just guns, but anti-tank missiles, armored vehicles, heat-seeking lasers and artillery -- all flooding into an unruly and complex state.

Since then, some of America's "beautiful military equipment," as US President Donald Trump once called it, has been passed on, sold, stolen or abandoned in Yemen's state of chaos, where murky alliances and fractured politics mean little hope for any system of accountability or tracking.

Some terror groups have gained from the influx of US arms, with the barrier of entry to advanced weaponry now lowered by the laws of supply and demand. Militia leaders have had ample opportunity to obtain military hardware in exchange for the manpower to fight the Houthi militias. Arms dealers have flourished, with traders offering to buy or sell anything, from a US-manufactured rifle to a tank, to the highest bidder.

And Iran's proxies have captured American weapons they can exploit for vulnerabilities or reverse-engineer for native production.

Graveyard of US military hardware

At a graveyard of discarded US-made military hardware near the flashpoint port city of Hodeidah, it becomes clear that the Alwiyat al Amalqa -- the Giants Brigade, a predominantly Salafi, or ultra-conservative Sunni, militia -- is a favored faction.

Nearly half a dozen Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles sit side by side, most bearing stickers with the insignia of the Giants Brigade.

One even has the export label on it showing it was sent from Beaumont, Texas to Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, before ending up in the hands of the militia. The serial number of another MRAP reveals it was manufactured by Navistar, the largest provider of armored vehicles for the US military.

The armored all-terrain vehicles are built to withstand ballistic arms fire, mine blasts and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). “It’s the vehicle that every crew wants when they’re out in the field,” Navistar’s website says. The firm declined to comment on this report.

Recipients of US weaponry are legally obligated to adhere to end-use requirements which prohibit the transferring of any equipment to third parties without prior authorization from the US government. That authorization was never obtained.

The Saudi coalition did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A senior UAE official denied “in no uncertain terms that we are in violation of end-user agreements in any manner.” – by Nima Elbagir, Salma Abdelaziz, Mohamed Abo El Gheit and Laura Smith-Spark (photos, films)

Comment by Judith Brown: This is hardly a surprise - it is almost a tradition in yemen for soldiers to sell their weapons and so many now have starving children the temptation to sell weapons must be overwhelming. It has also been well reported in various research projects - such as one by Peter Salisbury - previously of Chatham House - a year or so back

Comment by Rep. Ro Khanna: Usually when we spread our weapons around the world, they only *accidentally* end up in the hands of our adversaries. But it appears in this case our partners *actively* gave our weapons to Al-Qaeda. This is unacceptable and warrants a full investigation.

Just a few months after their murder of Khashoggi and botched cover-up, @CNN’s report once again confirm that the Saudis can't be trusted. This is yet another reason to pass the War Powers Resolution this month and end our involvement in their war in Yemen.

Comment by Sen. Chris Murphy: “This investigation needs to be a wake-up call. Congress should immediately pass our bipartisan War Powers Resolution to get us out of the war in Yemen that has gone horribly wrong, and we must stop selling weapons to help Saudi Arabia and the UAE continue to perpetuate this disastrous war.”

Comment by Stephen Miles, director of Win Without War: It is nearly impossible to overstate how backwards and counterproductive our bi-partisan obsession with arming the world is, but here's example number 7,439...

CNN has more details about the spread of U.S.-supplied weapons to terrorists and war criminals in Yemen that I discussed here.

There were credible reports late last year that the Saudis and Emiratis had been violating their agreements with the U.S. by transferring weapons to militias in Yemen. Mohamed Abo-Elgheit and the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalists (Arij) were the first to cover this story in a documentary released in 2018. The CNN article (co-authored by Abo-Elgheit) confirms and expands on their reports.

The coalition’s diversion of weapons to other parties is obnoxious, but it is just the latest reminder that the U.S. shouldn’t be providing the Saudis and Emiratis with any weapons for their war on Yemen. We know that they and their proxies use these weapons to commit war crimes and heinous abuses of the civilian population. We also know that they can’t be trusted to keep these weapons out of the hands of terrorists.

When our government floods a war zone with weapons, it is more or less inevitable that those weapons will end up in the hands of armed groups that absolutely shouldn’t have them. This is what happened in Syria, and it is what usually happens when we throw weapons at an ongoing, multi-sided conflict. That is why the U.S. shouldn’t be so quick to provide clients and proxies with weapons that they are certain to use for their own purposes. In this case, some weapons have ended up in the hands of both Al Qaeda members and the Houthis. This latest outrage comes on top of the arming and financing that the Saudi coalition and its proxies have been providing to Al Qaeda members in Yemen and the alliance of convenience that has existed between the coalition and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) since the war began. U.S. weapons don’t just happen to make their way into the hands of terrorists. Our clients provide the terrorists with these weapons because they and our government are all on the same side in an indefensible war that our government has supported for close to four years.

These latest reports are just the most recent evidence that the Saudis and Emiratis are not our allies and cannot be trusted with the weapons and support that our government has eagerly provided them. It is one more reason why the U.S. must end all involvement in the war on Yemen, cease all arms sales to the Saudis and the UAE, and downgrade our relations with these reckless and unreliable clients – by Daniel Larison

Weapons ending up with terrorists is OK, as long as Obama did it: The world according to CNN

A “bombshell” CNN report has revealed that US-made weapons found their way to Al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Yemen. But is anyone surprised? And where was CNN when the Obama administration armed hardcore jihadists in Syria?

The CNN investigation revealed how American-made weapons ended up in the hands of “al Qaeda-linked fighters, hardline Salafi militias, and other factions waging war in Yemen,” vis-a-vis the US’ coalition partners Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Some of these weapons have also been seized by Iranian-backed militias, CNN claims.

CNN lays responsibility squarely at the feet of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the Trump administration, which refused to cancel its multibillion dollar arms deals with the Saudis last year, for fear of losing “all of that investment being made into our country.”

The report paints a depressing, but familiar picture. Picking sides in foreign wars has historically proven disastrous for the United States, yet successive administrations have made the same mistakes again and again.

More recently, in 2014 Barack Obama announced that the US would hand-select and arm ‘moderate rebels’ in Syria, stepping into the country’s bloody civil war. That too would prove disastrous, with troves of US arms ending up in the hands of Al-Nusra and ISIS.

But where was CNN when Obama asked Congress for $500 million to train, arm, and “empower the moderate Syrian opposition?”

CNN was reporting the news verbatim from Obama’s mouth, repeating the phrase “moderate rebels” without the ironic quotation marks that have become necessary since. Obama’s assertion that the rebels offered the “best alternative to terrorists and a brutal dictator" was not questioned, unlike Trump’s continuation of the longstanding US policy of arming the Saudis.

As CNN repeated the White House line on Syria, the network published just one report hinting that things might be amiss

CNN’s latest exclusive report is a well-researched piece of journalism, fleshed out with on-the-ground reporting from war-torn Yemen. However, given the network’s history in reporting US arms programs, it was much more likely motivated by a desire to score points against Trump than the pursuit of cold truth, no matter who is in charge.

Some in the United States are questioning whether Saudi Arabia, under the leadership of a 33-year-old prince accountable to no one, is any ally at all.

How did we get here? Saudi Arabia asserting itself as a regional military power is a bargain President Barack Obama was willing to make in 2015, outsourcing to a longstanding US ally the confrontation of Iran’s regional ambitions. The last two years have made that bargain seem extremely short-sighted. But the process that leads the world to this point began almost two decades ago, in the panicked chaos that followed the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

It began with the “ticking time bomb” scenario that US President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney used to justify to themselves the rightness and goodness of torture.

Torture was justified if using it could extract information from a human being that would save innocent lives. The ends justified the horrific means.

And, of course, America’s allies in the War on Terror, including Saudi Arabia, were tacitly permitted to do even worse. Obama promised to bring an end to these practices, but his administration turned a blind eye to how US allies used torture to “stop” terrorism, sometimes handing over suspects for torture in other countries.

Whether or not the Emirates violated its “end-user agreement” on US weapons seems like a traffic ticket when compared to the scale of crimes the US encouraged its allies to commit. If you can justify denying the humanity of one person, why not millions? Why not starve 85,000 children to death?

These heinous, illegal deeds did not reduce the number of deaths due to terrorist attacks. The past two decades have seen a dramatic rise in attacks around the world, in Iraq, Afghanistan and then in Syria, where Daesh and the Syrian regime tortured thousands to death, despite each group being on opposite sides of the conflict.

But it was the United States that first opened this door by setting an example showing Washington didn’t care how a country went after terrorists. “Just get ‘er done”. Laws, after all, became silent the second the first plane hit the World Trade Center that sunny Tuesday morning.

Trump was the inheritor of a global regime of immense cruelty that began years ago, while he was still a game show host. As a fervent supporter of his Saudi friends, his creditors and customers at his hotels, Trump has done nothing to rein in the kingdom’s abuses. The difference between Trump and Obama or Bush is that he sees torturing people as something to boast about, not hide in shame or explain in euphemisms like “enhanced interrogation”.

What does all that have to do with Yemen? Well, if torturing one person is OK, why not torture entire countries full of people (Yemen, Syria, Palestine) if it’s in pursuit of stopping terrorism? The dangerous delusion of the Bush administration was that there was some sort of ethical backstop to the use of torture, and that it wasn’t bound to spiral out of control as soon as it began. Saudi Arabia, in particular, has used its experience in torture not just for those affiliated with terrorist groups, but also human rights activists who criticise Riyadh. Saudi torturers can operate without fear of legal consequence, just as Cheney still remains a free man.

Americans sometimes refer to their unending conflicts abroad as “forever wars”. If a war lasts forever, can laws stay silent forever, too? – by Wilson Dizard

Yemen’s war-ravaged hospitals have a new health emergency: a massive outbreak of swine flu, they appear to have no way of stopping. RT America’s Michele Greenstein joins Rick Sanchez to explain how this may affect the United States.

Retired Danish general Michael Lollesgaard arrived Tuesday in Sanaa to head the UN observer mission in war-wracked Yemen and replace his predecessor whose ties with the rebels were reportedly strained.

Lollesgaard replaces Patrick Cammaert, the Dutch general who had been tapped a little over a month ago to lead the mission deployed in the lifeline Red Sea port city of Hodeida.

The spokesman of the Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Sare'e, said that the US-Saudi Forces Continue to Violate Stockholm Ceasefire, in Hodeidah, in the past few days, with 367 violations. He said in a statement to the Yemeni news agency Saba that "the US-Saudi mercenaries targeted by 216 artillery shells, 16 missiles, 91 bombs and 34 movement operations, farms and Yemeni Army' sites in several districts." Sare'e explained that the fighter jets and reconnaissance drones continued to fly intensely over Hodiedah city and districts.

The Yemeni Army monitored movements of trucks carrying supplies of US-Saudi mercenaries and a bulldozer making fortifications.

Feb. 4: In Hodeidah, a child was injured by US-Saudi mercenaries gunshots in At-tohayta district. US-Saudi mercenaries fired more than 15 artillery shells on civilians' houses and Medicine College. The mercenaries also targeted Ad-durayhimi district by machine guns with artillery shells.

Retired Dutch General Patrick Cammaert, head of a UN truce team tasked with monitoring a ceasefire in the port city of Hodeida, has contacted the UN Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths, informing him that the Houthis refuses political solution, a Saudi newspaper has reported.

Okaz newspaper said that Cammeart requested Griffiths to put pressures on the Houthis to implement the Stockholm Agreement.

The Houthis had refused a suggestion to withdraw all forces of fighting parties from Hodeida and form local and security authorities in order to implement the agreement entirely.

Representatives of both Yemeni warring factions attended on Monday a meeting for the second consecutive day to discuss the withdrawal of rebel forces from the turbulent Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, a government official said.

The pro-government Governor of Hodeidah Hassan Taher told Xinhua that the team of the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) attended a meeting with the presence of the UN chief monitor Patrick Cammaert aboard a ship over the implementation of Stockholm Agreement.

During the meeting, Cammaert presented his plan regarding the withdrawal of the Houthi rebels from Hodeidah's key ports and listened to reactions from the two-warring factions representatives, the governor said.

Taher said the government representatives voiced support for Cammaert's plan and suggested some slight amendments that included adding a condition of defusing all landmine fields set up by Houthis.

The Houthi representatives refused a number of points included in Cammaert's plan, according to Hodeidah's governor who pointed out that constructive results may be achieved during the next meetings of the RCC.

On Sunday, key topics were discussed during the first meeting aboard the UN-hired ship including reopening main roads for humanitarian purposes and reducing cease-fire violations as well as withdrawing Houthi rebels from the Hodeidah's ports.

The United Nations Security Council urged the warring parties in Yemen on Monday to withdraw forces from the country’s main port of Hodeidah and two other ports “without further delays.”

Representatives from both parties met for a second day on a ship on the Red Sea on Monday, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, in a U.N.-led push to implement the stalled troop withdrawal which was agreed at December talks in Sweden.

“Both parties have reiterated their commitment to implementing the Hodeidah aspects of the Stockholm agreement,” Dujarric said.

Civilians killed in al-Houthi shelling and displacement of residents of Al-Mandhar neighborhood- south of Hodeidah

A civilian was killed by wounds sustained as a result of the al-Houthi shelling on Hees district of southern Hodeidah, while the Houthis continue to shell a number of sites south of Hodeidah province.

A civilian, Mohammed Zeid, died of shrapnel from a mortar shell fired by the Houthis at his home in the city of Hees, the Media Center of Giants Brigades said.

"The Houthi militias shelled the Giants with Dushka shells, mortars, and 14.5 and PKC arms in Hees, while the Giants ' brigades committed themselves not to respond to the sources of the shootings for their respect for the UN truce set out in the Swedish conventions," he said.

On the one hand, a number of residents of al-Hook District, south of the city of Hodeidah, were displaced Saturday to areas outside the city as a result of indiscriminate shelling by Houthi militias on a daily basis, "he said.

In Hodeidah, a number of mortar shells landed near Kuwait Hospital in the 7th of July neighborhood in Al-Hally district. The invaders and mercenaries targeted the Airport, the Union Area, and 50th street in the city with artillery and machine-guns, while jets and drones continued to fly in the sky of the city and port of Hodeidah.

The third meeting of the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC), chaired by General Cammaert, convened today on board a UN vessel berthed in the port of Hudaydah. Both the Government of Yemen and Houthi RCC representatives are present. General Cammaert opened the meeting by underlining the importance of respecting the ceasefire which came into effect on 18 December. He warned the parties about the fragility of the ceasefire and urged them to instruct their commanders on the ground to refrain from any further violations that would jeopardize the Stockholm Agreement and the broader peace process for Yemen. Both parties have reiterated their commitment to implementing the Hudaydah aspects of the Stockholm Agreement, and in particular, underscored their commitment to finding a solution that would open up the Hudaydah-Sana’a road to allow humanitarians access to the Red Sea Mills. Talks are cordial and constructive. They will continue tomorrow.

Representatives from both sides in the Yemen conflict met on a ship on the Red Sea on Sunday in a U.N.-led push to implement a stalled troop withdrawal from Yemen’s main port of Hodeidah as agreed at December peace talks, a U.N. official told Reuters.

The United Nations is overseeing the implementation of a ceasefire and troop withdrawal accord in Hodeidah, the main entry point for most of Yemen’s imports, in the hope it will lead to a political solution to the almost four-year war.

Sunday’s meeting was the third time the U.N.-led Redeployment Coordination Committee convened since it was formed in December, bringing together the Houthis with the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised Yemeni government and U.N. mediators.

The parties met on a U.N. ship because attempts to convene the third meeting in territory held by coalition forces failed because the Houthis were unwilling to cross the frontline, sources have told Reuters.

According to the report, the Saudi-led coalition violated the ceasefire regime established in al-Hudaydah province 3,819 times. The Yemeni military claimed that Saudi-led forces had used 222 missiles and 2,512 mortar shells as well as opened fire using heavy weapons 680 times.

The report added that Saudi warplanes had carried out 718 airstrikes across Yemen during the same period. 88 civilians were killed and 117 were wounded in these airstrikes (infographic)

Yemen rebels violated Hodeidah ceasefire more than 700 times in January

Yemen's Houthi rebels committed more than 700 violations of the UN-brokered ceasefire in Hodeidah in the past four weeks, causing dozens of deaths, the government and the allied Arab military coalition said.

According to a detailed list included in the letter, the rebels killed 48 and wounded 371 in 702 attacks since January 3. In total, the rebels violated the ceasefire in the Red Sea port city and surrounding areas 970 times since it went into effect on December 18, causing 71 deaths.

Many of the violations came from heavy artillery fire aimed at pro-government “national resistance forces”, the letter says, but the rebels have also used mortar shelling, RPG fire and sniper attacks.

cp2 Allgemein / General

Yemen consistently features at the bottom of the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, revealing significant gender differences in access to education, political and labour force participation and high levels of violence against women and girls (VAWG). Despite these challenges, women have seen impressive gains in terms of representation. For example the National Dialogue1 (2013-2014) which saw consistent and high levels of representation of women across delegates, stakeholders and committees, including in decision-making capacities.

This report has reviewed the evidence (and assessed the quality of the evidence) in relation to women, peace and security (WPS) in Yemen. It finds that women are active in multiple different ways to both influence the conflict and the peacebuilding efforts as well as negotiating and delivering relief to affected populations.

Commercial drones are increasingly being employed as a tool of political violence - will they be the new guerilla weapon of choice?

What do the chaos in Venezuela and the breakdown of the ceasefire in Yemen have in common? Both crises witnessed the use of low-tech unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), otherwise referred to as “hobby drones” in assassination attempts by dissidents or non-state actors.

The King Salman air base in Riyadh received on Saturday the bodies of five de-mining experts from different nationalities, two from South Africa, one from Kosovo and one from Croatia, and one other from Bosnia who died in a Houthi-planted mine explosion while serving in Yemen’s Marib province.

Eliot Higgins, the British founder of the investigative journalism network Bellingcat, to talk more about what motivated him to start the website.

EH: On August 9, 2018, a bomb struck a busy market area in the centre of Dahyan, Saada Governorate, Yemen, killing 54 civilians, 44 of which were children. Following this strike the Saudi-led coalition spokesperson, Turki al-Malki, stated that they had hit a "legitimate military target", as a response to a ballistic missile fired into Saudi Arabia the previous day.

However, as indicated in the Bellingcat article, this statement was disproved through video footage from inside the bus prior to the strike. It showed children crammed on the bus with few adults and no military personnel. Bellingcat proceeded to verify that the size of the bus in the video was consistent with photos of its wreckage taken after the airstrike. Followed by additional cross-referencing with satellite images from Dahayan which showed no obvious military presence of the Houthi rebels there.

More recently we've been working with groups focused on the conflict in Yemen, and that involves training local groups, creating networks of organisations, and in the long term improving the quality of reporting on Yemen.

This International Women's Day, the Women are demanding peace for Yemen. More than one hundred women inside and outside Yemen have drafted an open letter to the UN Envoy, endorsed by solidarity from women and civil society organisations from the MENA region and the world. Visit our page to read the full letter sent to the New Event:

Five months into the armed conflict, gender based violence increased by 70%[1], the number of documented cases women killed and injured have reached 2,447[2], and the number of internally displaced persons has now reached more than two million, 76% of whom are women and children[3]. Among female-headed IDP and host community households, nearly 21 per cent are headed by females below the age of 18[4]. Child marriage has also increased to 66%[5], as families resort to it as a coping mechanism to address the poverty widening gap and the deprivation of economic opportunities. It is estimated that 8 million have lost their livelihoods[6], amid complete or interruption of civil servants salaries and suspension of the social welfare fund cash aid transfers to vulnerable groups. The collapse of the health system have led to catastrophic consequences, including outbreak of diseases such as cholera reaching to more than a million of suspect cases[7], and where women accounted for 50% of the affected cases[8].

Women’s rights violations and abuse have also increased dramatically. Women have been targeted by airstrikes in their homes, weddings, funerals, schools, and markets. They have been directly targeted by snipes, and they have fallen victims of indiscriminate shelling and mines explosions. They have been shot at with live bullets during their peaceful demonstrations and they have been detained arbitrarily.

In #Aden, #Yemen, @UNICEF continues to support collective centers for displaced communities from Al Hudaydah through provision of clean #water, installation of water tanks and temporary latrines, thanks to the support of the German development bank @KfW

With support from the German development bank @KfWpress, @UNICEF handed over equipment to the Local Water & Sanitation Corporation in #Aden #Yemen, including #water pumps and sewage equipment that will improve #sanitation works and benefit the whole population in the area (photos)

In #Socotra, @UNICEF_Yemen continues its WASH response through six rural #water projects, with rehabilitation of tanks, provision of solar pumps and installation of network pipelines. Thanks to these interventions, more than 10,000 people will soon have access to safe water (photo)

Film: “Since the war started, everything has become so much more expensive, vulnerable people can’t manage their family needs”. – Zahrah. Yemen’s children are in urgent need of life saving food, access to clean water, and health care.

SMEPS: Water scarcity is one of the biggest #problems faced by #coffee farmers. Providing a way to ensure water sustainability is a necessary. #SMEPS supports #farmers with water tanks to save rainwater and use it for #coffee cultivation. This #solution is definitely cost effective! (photo)

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: FAO and EU join efforts to strengthen Yemen’s capacity to monitor drivers of food insecurity and hunger

As the fragile peace in Yemen holds and with serious food insecurity concerns persisting, the European Union (EU) and FAO have announced new EU funding of €5.9 million ($6.7 million) to support the UN agency's work to build the country's capacity to monitor threats to food security and collect key data on hunger and malnutrition.

Together with Yamaan Foundation, our Yemeni partner organization, Cordaid has started a 3 year healthcare project in Yemen. This comes on top of the humanitarian food and shelter support we started providing in 2018, also in collaboration with Yamaan Foundation.

To address urgent needs, Cordaid’s humanitarian team and our local partner Yamaan Foundation started providing food and shelter support in 2018. With our recently launched healthcare response, which is implemented in the region of Dhamar, thousands of people will have better access to medical care, ranging from vaccinations to safe deliveries.

Cordaid and Yamaan’s three-year project to improve health care in Yemen focuses on Dhamar, a region south of the capital city of Sana’a. Here, we support 50 health centers, improving the access to basic medical care for the most common illnesses and afflictions for thousands of people.

Solar panels are providing women in Yemen access to energy and a way to escape famine conditions that continue to threaten the country.

The program provides women access to materials and training to start microbusinesses that can sell energy to power community services such as water and health systems.

The earned income is enough to buy food and other household necessities, while also providing economic independence that women in Yemen often don’t experience.

“It’s not a lack of access to food, it’s more of a lack of access to income. The food is available, but because of the increasing and decreasing Yemeni rial and the fact that many communities and many women no longer have access to employment, they can no longer afford to purchase the food,” said Leanne Rios, communications and advocacy team lead at UNDP Yemen.

UNDP currently has 200 successful microbusiness projects throughout the north and south of the country working to provide cheaper energy in a context where fuel to run homes, businesses, schools, and health facilities has become prohibitively expensive. A collapse of local government services has left the civilian population and NGOs to fill in the gaps.

UNDP has focused programming on empowering women, who do not traditionally work outside the home in Yemen but are now often the breadwinners for their families after several years of war.

Twins born with one body desperately need to leave Yemen for treatment

The twins are conjoined from the neck down, in a condition known as parapagus dicephalus, which has a low survival rate. Abdul-Khaliq and Abdul-Rahim lie inside an incubator at the neonatal intensive care unit of Al-Thawra hospital, in Sana’a, Yemen.

Mohammed Ahmed, 3-and-a-half years old, suffers from kidney cancer. With a beautiful, heart-capturing smile, he tells the doctor that he wants to go home. So far, Mohammed has had 6 chemotherapy sessions over 8 months and is scheduled for 2 more in the coming months. Mohammed’s family is trying to move from Ibb to Sana’a to avoid the high cost of transportation.

“To travel for each treatment session, we pay almost 50 000 Yemeni Riyals for transport (less than US$ 100). This doesn’t even include the cost of accommodation, and we also have to borrow money to pay for each dose of anti-cancer medicines. My husband works as a teacher, but the government is not paying salaries any more. We have nothing,” says Mohammed’s mother.

Of the approximately 35 000 cancer patients in Yemen, Layan and Mohammed are just 2 of the more than 1000 children suffering from cancer, making up 12% of about 11 000 newly registered cancer cases in the country.

Cancer has become a death sentence

Cancer should not be a death sentence, but in Yemen it has become one. This is the case for many Yemenis who cannot afford the cost of treatment, and who stay at home and wait for death to relieve their pain.

It has been one-and-a-half years since Safia was diagnosed with a tumour in her oral cavity. Safia, who is originally from Hajjah, now lives in Haradh, a district hosting many displaced Yemenis from surrounding conflict-affected areas. Since her diagnosis, Safia has had more than 10 chemotherapy sessions and 33 radiation therapy sessions. Her son Abdulla said that travelling from Haradh to Sana’a for treatment weakens his mother, and has left the family bankrupt.

“We have sold everything we own to afford treatment for my mother. Travelling from Haradh to Sana’a costs at least 120 000 YR (US$ 250). I lost my job at the beginning of the conflict and we now live on borrowed money and donations from charity organizations,” Abdulla explained.

Most cancer patients seek treatment at the National Oncology Centre in Sana’a that receives more than 600 patients per month. “Each day we receive at least 25 new cases. It is devastating to watch helpless patients leave the centre with little hope of coming back to continue treatment, simply because they cannot afford it,” said Dr Abdullah Thabaan, head of the communication unit.

“Even those patients who manage to travel to the centre for treatment are now at risk, as we are hugely underfunded and receive no operational costs. We are facing severe shortages of anti-cancer medicines, and the number of people receiving treatment may decrease if we are forced to turn people away.”

“The needs are immense and many patients will face imminent death if we close our doors,” Dr Thabaan added.

WHO's response

This year, WHO supported the National Oncology Centre in Sana’a with various life-saving anti-cancer medicines and chemotherapy medications. These medications are enough to cover acute shortages of medicines for 30 000 cancer patients for one year (photos)

The Public Works Project (Pwp) Has Been Created In The Context Of Yemen’s Social Safety Net, Aiming To Mitigate The Adverse Effects Of The Economic Reform Program Set In Motion During 1995.

It Was Established In 1996 By Law No. (36) And The Prime Minister Decree No. (3) Of The Year 1996 For The Formation Of The Pwp Steering Committee And Defining Its Key Tasks. PWP objectives:

The establishment of the Public Works Projects came as a pressing necessity to mitigate the adverse effects of the Economical, Financial and Administrative Reform Program as a model for efficient delivery of basic infrastructure services within well defined and transparent procedures.

PWP Main Objectives

Creating job opportunities for skilled and unskilled laborers.

Providing infrastructure service projects for the poor and deprived communities

- WFP is scaling up to reach 12 million people with life-saving food rations and commodity vouchers in January; 10 million severely food insecure people will receive in-kind food rations and 2 million will receive commodity vouchers.

- On 25 January, a fire at the Red Sea Mills in Al Hudaydah City damaged wheat stored in two silos. On 26 January, a collective centre for IDPs was shelled in Haradh District, Hajjah Governorate, killing 8 people and wounding 30 others.

How does a child live during the war? Almost all children in #Yemen depend on humanitarian aid at the beginning of the fourth year of the war. Shortage of malnutrition, the risk of another outbreak of cholera and the collapse of infrastructure and the school system are threatening the lives of millions.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) confirmed on Tuesday 57 of its nationals drowned after two migrant boats sank off the coast of Djibouti last week.

In a press statement, MoFA said it has confirmed the identity of the 57 Ethiopian nationals, after sending an Ethiopian government fact finding mission to Djibouti.

MoFA further said it has confirmed 16 Ethiopian nationals survived the accident, with the survivors receiving psychological and medical help by the Red Cross charity.

The tragedy occurred during the early hours of Jan. 29 off Godoria, a locality in the Obock region of northeast Djibouti.

The latest incident is said to be one of the many similar deadly calamities that have occurred on Djibouti's Red Sea coast area, as desperate East African migrants attempted to cross the dangerous route hoping to reach the Middle East via the war-torn nation Yemen, mainly aiming at reaching Yemen' northern neighbor Saudi Arabia.

At least 300 families were displaced to Abs District (Hajjah Governorate) in the last three weeks, fleeing hostilities elsewhere in Hajjah, such as Haradh and Hayran districts. Abs district is hosting an estimated 23,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), many of whom have been displaced multiple times; people are also relocating from within Abs district, due to the proximity of fighting.

UNHCR Response

Working with various Yemeni partner organisations, UNHCR has identified, assessed and supported the needs of the most vulnerable households, in multiple governorates. In the eastern governorates of Hadramout and Shabwah, in partnership with the Society for Humanitarian Solidarity (SHS), UNHCR identified more than 50 vulnerable IDP families (350 individuals) and provided core relief items (CRIs) to help them meet their needs. In Ibb and Taizz Governorates, in partnership with the Yemen Women’s Union (YWU), UNHCR is disbursing CRIs and emergency shelter kits (ESKs) to 2,000 IDP families living in hosting sites.

Sudd Khalif, 16, was among 35 students competing to answer a teacher’s question in a packed classroom at the Yemeni Community School here.

Khalif fled the civil war in Yemen, his home country, two years ago, postponing his dream of becoming a doctor. Now he needs to study hard, he said, because he still hopes to study medicine some day.

“I want to achieve my dream in Somalia,” said Khalif. “I had given up in life” in Yemen, he said. “But I thank God that everything is going well now. I’m now lucky to access education like other people.”

Khalif is among 5,800 Yemeni refugees who are trying to make a new life in Somalia—an irony, given that thousands of Somalis in the past have fled to Yemen to escape violence in their country.

But with the help of the United Nations and international humanitarian groups, Khalif and thousands of other Yemeni youth are receiving a basic education, many of them for the first time.

cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis

The Yemeni Organization for Combating Human Trafficking has revealed that the Houthis steal organs of their wounded fighters and traffic them.

The organization quoted families of victims as saying that some of their relatives’ organs were stolen after being wounded in battles, explaining that these persons are murdered by the Houthis in order to cover their crimes.

Those who have no civilization try to ostruct civilized Yemen's future due to jealousy : PM

The Prime Minister Dr. Abdulaziz bin Habtoor stressed that the great history and great achievements of the Yemeni nation since the dawn of history in the region are among the main reasons for the suffering that the country is currently undergoing. He pointed out that those who do not have a civilization are trying to curb the Yemeni people from moving towards making a modern and influential present in the current human civilization. This came during his participation in the opening of the Yemen History Conference between the past and the future prospects, which started today in Sana'a and was organized by two local institutions two days.

Revealing his fate for the first time. The Houthis are directed to release the politician Mohamed Qahtan

The al-Houthi group on Tuesday unveiled for the first time the fate of the kidnapped politician in its four-year prison, Mohamed Qahtan, after a release order by the group's Specialized criminal prosecution department.

According to a memorandum by prosecutor Abdullah al-Kumaim, addressed the political security service, the decision to release Mohamed Mohamed Qahtan to be implemented, as directed by the Chief Prosecutor.

According to the memorandum, the decision to release was based on the decision of the chief prosecutor.

Since his abduction from his home in the capital Sana'a in mid-2015, the fate of the politician has been completely unknown, days after he was placed under house arrest.

Director of Presidency Office Reveals Black Lists of International Humanitarian Organizations, Pledges to Correct Their Imbalances

Sana’a Sunday opened the black lists of international humanitarian organizations operating in Yemen that invest in the sufferings of Yemenis and their plight, announcing in the opening of conference a number of models of fraud and the exploitation of international organizations for millions of dollars in aid to the Yemeni people, wasted under the item of operating expenses of the organizations.

In his speech at the opening of the conference of the declaration of the humanitarian needs plan for the year 2019, the Director of the Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Yemen -- Chairman of the National Authority for Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Response, Ahmed Hamed-- sent explicit messages to international organizations working in Yemen.

Hamed pointed out in his speech to what some international organizations are offering to the Yemeni people from the tons of medicines that have expired or are close to expiry, as happened last year 2018, revealing other issues like fraud and irresponsible action by international organizations.

"An international organization - not named - got financial aid to Yemen for $ 5 million, but it took $ 3.1 million for itself under operating expenses and provided the Yemeni people with less than $ 2 million in aid," Hamed said.

The Yemeni Ansarallah movement urged the United Nations and humanitarian bodies to make serious efforts to break the siege of Ad Durayhimi city, Al Hudaydah Province.

According to the Yemeni media 'Al-Masirah', Ansarallah political bureau in a statement slammed the measures taken by Emirati occupiers in Socotra and some other parts of Yemen. Ansarallah also referred to the recent victories achieved by Yemeni forces against Saudi aggressors and praised Al Mahrah people for their movement against occupiers. Earlier, a Yemen foreign ministry official said that the Yemeni nation opposes the presence of any foreign troops in the Arab country. 'Preserving the national sovereignty is a political and popular will,' an official at Yemen's foreign ministry earlier told Yemen News Agency (SABA), reacting to British Ambassador Michael Aron's remarks who had stressed that Yemeni government should decide about the presence of foreign troops.

Two children and two women were injured by Houthi shelling on Shaleila camp in Haradh for the second time

Four displaced persons were injured in the "Shaleila" displacement camp in Haradh district in the northwestern province of Hajjah on Saturday evening, following artillery shelling by militants of the al-Houthi group.

Medical sources told Al-Masdar online that the wounded were two children and two women, and were seriously injured after a mortar fired by the Houthis targeted their tent.

He said the wounded were taken to the Saudi al-Ali Hospital, which is located on the Yemeni-Saudi border, and near the camp site.

This is the second time the Houthis bombed the camp, following a similar bombardment that killed eight displaced people and injured more than 20 others late last month.

cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government

(* B T)

The black January for Yemenis by the Saudi-led coalition!

The cities of Aden and Hadramout are witnessing many crimes of assassinations involving military officials, security officers and clerics by special assassination squads of the UAE and Saudi forces, backed by the US , in the city.

On Thursday January 31st, 2019, a high-level presidential UAE delegation visited Socotra in accompaniment of Sheikh Khalfan Fadel Al-Mazrouei, pioneer of development in Socotra and supervisor of UAE humanitarian project in the archipelago. Accompanied by Ramzi Mahrous, governor of Socotra, the delegation opened ICU, Major Surgical Operations Unit and Dialysis Unit in Khalifa Hospital, built according to most recent standards and equipped with cutting-edge medical technology, including dialysis machines.

My comment: The UAE seems to bribe the polulation to accept its plans of permanent occupation and exploitation as military base and tourism destination.

(* B P)

Why do international, Yemeni officials describe the coalition in southern Yemen as occupation?

Many international and Yemeni official keep asking the Saudi-led coalition, backed by the US, especially UAE to stop its practices, which violates the international law in southern Yemen .

Interior Minister Ahmed al-Misari of exiled, resigned president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Ben Daghr’s authorities backed by Saudi Arabia said there are a number of indicators that confirm that the UAE came to occupy South Yemen.

Al-Misari’ remarks came within an interview aired by the US-based PBS TV.

“I can’t enter the city of Aden or exit without permission from the United Arab Emirates.”, Al-Misari said, adding that the UAE controls the management of the port and the airport in Aden and no one can go to there without taking permission from the UAE, confirming that ” If I do not have authority over prisons. So what’s my duty as interior minister?” he said, referring to UAE-run prisons,and describing the performance of ben Daghr’s authorities as “negative role.”

Press secretary of the exiled Hadi called for filing a lawsuit against the UAE military commanders, who run secret jails in Yemen’s southern provinces through paid fighters loyal to them.

Mukhtar al-Rahbi tweeted on Twitter saying” A lawsuit should be filed against Shalal Shaya and all militia leaders supervising the jails in the city of Aden and also against the UAE military commanders who run secret prisons in the city, calling on the human rights organization to document all violations and those responsible for them, and to publish all the details and submit them to the judiciary at home and abroad.

Former South President Ali Nasser Mohamed said the removal of the exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi from the Yemeni political scene will end the war in the country.

“The only solution to stop the four-year war is to remove the exiled president from the Yemeni scene,” Ali Nasser Mohamed said during a meeting with southern activists in Cairo, Egypt. He added that Hadi’s dismissal is the solution that will end the war.

A Yemeni southern politician warned of the spread of relief centers in Yemen’s southern provinces, which are created by the UAE forces under the name of “Emirates Red Crescent.”

“The southern provinces are rich in oil and gas, and must reject all politicized humanitarian aid or should not rely on relief centers,” said Ali al-Zamki, explaining that the halt of work in the productive institutions in the southern provinces is a systematic and intended. “The relief centers are paving the way for the proliferation of terrorist elements and for international interventions as widely as in Somalia and Afghanistan,” ,and adding that the expansion of relief programs in any country “will be a source of the continuation of the civil war.”

President Hadi issues decision to relocate the High Electoral Commission to the interim capital of Aden

President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi on Tuesday issued a decision to relocate the High Electoral Commission to the interim capital of Aden. The move comes more than four years after the Houthi rebels completed the coup d'état and controlled state institutions in Sanaa, after declaring The Houthi coup plotters intend to organize supplementary elections to fill vacant districts in their areas of control.

The decision stipulated that the Higher Committee for Elections should exercise its powers, responsibilities and actions from its headquarters in the interim capital of Aden and the Government should promptly provide administrative and financial facilities to the Commission.

Remark: This is due to the fact that the commission still is working at Sanaa and now will arrange elections for some seats in parliament at Sanaa (Look at Ye,men War Mosaic 508, cp5).

(B P)

Dispatch: Inside Al Ghaydah, the Yemeni city increasingly suffocated by the Saudi blockade

n the paediatric ward of Al Ghaydah central hospital, a young child writhes, screaming in his mother’s arms. He has a skin infection, coupled with vomiting and a fever. At any other hospital he would be dosed with painkillers - but here in Yemen's east, his screams echo through the ward without pause.

There is no medication, nothing to ease the pain except his mother's embrace.

The city of Al Ghaydah, and the wider governorate of Al Mahra, have been spared much of the devastation of Yemen's civil war. But now, locals say, it is facing is an increasingly suffocating blockade by Saudi Arabia - businesses are failing, hospitals are chronically low on supplies, and local fishermen are prevented from leaving the shore (subscribers only)

Deputy Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Saleh al-Zandani, died of his injuries in Al-Anad attack

Deputy chief of staff of the Yemeni army, Maj. Gen. Saleh Zandani, died of his injuries in an attack on the al-Anad military base in the southern Yemeni province of Lahj last month, a government military source said on Sunday.

cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks

Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen: The supervisory committee on the implementation of the prisoner exchange agreement reconvenes in Amman on 5 February

The Supervisory Committee on the implementation of the prisoner exchange agreement is scheduled to reconvene in Amman tomorrow, 5 February. The Committee includes representatives of the Government of Yemen and Ansar Allah, and is co-chaired by the Office of the Special Envoy and the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, and the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, are scheduled to take part in the first day of the committee’s meetings.

A U.N. special envoy told warring Yemenis on Tuesday that rapid implementation of a prisoner swap deal would help advance efforts at a political settlement of a nearly four-year-old war.

The envoy, Martin Griffiths, said finalizing a list of the thousands of prisoners should be completed by the end of three days of talks in Amman between teams from the Saudi-backed government and their Iranian-aligned Houthi adversaries.

The list is to be handed over the world body and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

“It will lay the basis for the next step which will be to see that release happening,” Griffiths told delegates before the start of the second round in Amman in less than a month.

Yemen's Saudi-backed government began a new round of UN-brokered talks with Shiite Huthi rebels in Jordan on Tuesday on a troubled prisoner swap deal that mediators say hangs in the balance.

The huge prisoner exchange agreed in Stockholm in December is seen as a crucial confidence-building measure in the UN-led push to bring the warring sides to negotiations on ending four years of devastating conflict.

Both sides have said repeatedly they remain committed to the agreement that could see thousands of prisoners released by each side.

During two days of talks in the Jordanian capital last month, they submitted lists of the detainees they each want to see freed, but deep distrust prevented them coming up with a final list of names for the exchange.

Yemen’s warring sides are due to meet for fresh discussions on a prisoner exchange agreement, the UN’s Special Envoy for the war-torn country announced on Monday.

According to a statement from the Office of the UN Special Envoy, Martin Griffiths, representatives from the Government of Yemen and the Houthi opposition, Ansar Allah, will attend at a meeting in Amman, Jordan, on Tuesday.

A prisoner exchange agreement was signed in Sweden last December and represents the first accord between the two parties since the downward spiraling conflict began in Yemen nearly four years ago – sparking the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The UN Special Envoy’s office describes this round of meetings as “technical”, adding that those present will discuss steps to finalize the lists of prisoners to be released, “to advance the implementation of the [Stockholm] agreement”.

Meanwhile, the Security Council stressed the “vital importance” of making progress towards a political agreement to end the conflict and “relieve the humanitarian suffering of the Yemeni people”.

The Council welcomed that the Hudaydah ceasefire remains in place and commended the parties’ continued political commitment to uphold the Stockholm Agreement but expressed concern over alleged ceasefire violations, strongly condemning any actions that jeopardize the progress achieved through the Stockholm Agreement.

Welcoming the release of both parties’ prisoners, the Council called on each side to work “urgently” with the UN Chair of the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC), and the UNMHA to implement “without further delays” the agreed-upon plan to mutually redeploy forces from Hudaydah city and the ports of Hudaydah, Salif and Ras Issa.

They also called on the parties, particularly the Houthis controlling the ports, to ensure the security and safety of UNMHA personnel and unhindered movement of personnel, equipment, provisions and supplies into and within the country.

Progress must be made towards “a comprehensive political settlement to the conflict” with the full participation of women and youth, they stressed.

They reiterated their “grave concern at the continued deterioration of the humanitarian situation” and called for the rapid, safe flow of supplies and personnel into and across the country.

An exchange of thousands of prisoners between Yemen's Saudi-backed government and Huthis rebels hangs in the balance, marred by deep distrust between the warring sides, a senior Red Cross official said Monday.

On Tuesday, the United Nations is hosting another meeting between the warring parties in Jordan to try to agree on the lists of detainees to be released, with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) set to attend.

ICRC's director of operations Dominik Stillhart told reporters that the agreement on the prisoner exchange is "hanging in the balance," with trust among the parties "insufficient."

Each side has presented a list of up to 8,000 detainees to be freed, but many names cannot be accounted for, said Stillhart, adding that the prisoner swap realistically would involve a significantly lower number.

"There is a lot of disappointment on both sides," said Stillhart. "What we now see on both sides (is that) they don't have them all because a lot of them, they probably died during the conflict."

"The whole discussion now is who will finally be on the lists?" he said.

Distrust is running high between the government, backed by a Saudi-led military coalition, and the rebels, said Stillhart.

"There are expectations that some people on both sides should appear on the list and if they are not, immediately the question is: are you hiding them?" he said.

The situation in Yemen, despite talks aboard a ship in the Port of Hodeidah, was described by the chief UN spokesman on Monday as fragile.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman, said the chairman of the ship-board talks, retired Dutch Gen. Patrick Cammaert, sent a message underscoring "the fragility of the situation and the need to see progress."

A technical session of prisoner-swap negotiations is set for Tuesday in Amman.

The spokesman called the Re-deployment Coordination Committee (RCC) negotiations on a ship -- he refused to identify -- berthed in the port as "a very creative solution" by Cammaert to get the two sides in proximity to each other at a secure site.

Sunday's session was the third day of the negotiations chaired by Cammaert over where opposing troops would be stationed during a shaky cease-fire near the port.

"Both parties have reiterated their commitment to implementing the Hodeidah aspects of the Stockholm Agreement, and in particular, underscored their commitment to finding a solution that would open up the Hodeidah-Sanaa road to allow humanitarian access to the Red Sea Mills," Dujarric said, referring to a crucial grain storage area in the port.

"We have a kernel, in a sense, of a cease-fire in a specific area in Yemen," the spokesman told reporters at a regular briefing. "We need to secure that and build on that and move forward."

Yemeni government delegates and Huthi rebels will reconvene in Jordan from Tuesday for a new round of talks to thrash out a deal on a prisoner exchange, the UN said.

The swap, which could involve up to 15,000 detainees from each side, was agreed in principle as a confidence-building measure ahead of peace talks in Sweden in December.

In mid-January, representatives of Yemen's warring parties held two days of talks in Amman during which they submitted lists of prisoners they wanted to see released to UN mediators.

Those talks were also attended by representatives of the United Nations, which brokered the swap agreement, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, which will supervise its implementation.

On Wednesday government and rebel representatives would meet again in Amman for "technical" talks to "discuss the steps taken... (by both sides) to finalise the list of prisoners," a UN statement said on Tuesday.

UN envoy Martin Griffiths and ICRC president Peter Maurer would also be present, it said.

These negotiations, however, may not be the solution to Yemen’s problems. Ariel Ahram of the University of Vermont argues that the Stockholm Agreement is at best incomplete and at worst could exacerbate the violence. Ahram contends the international community might be better off trying to build up local orders rather than preserving a fiction of a unified Yemen.

For all of the immediate good that the Stockholm Agreement might do, it also complicates the long-term search for conflict resolution. Yemen is suffering through three separate but interlinked wars: 1) the civil war in the north between the Houthis and the central government, 2) another civil war between the central government and the Southern Movement (SM), a loose coalition of separatists centered around Aden, Shebwa, and Hadramaut, and 3) a nationwide campaign against radical Islamist terrorists groups, including al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The Stockholm Agreement offers a breakthrough in the northern front, but could hamper efforts to deal with Yemen’s other wars. Although horrendously bloody, the Houthi conflict is in some respects the most tractable of Yemen’s troubles.

In this sense, the Houthis’ vision for Yemen accorded with the assumption of the international community, which has ritualistically affirmed its “commitment to the unity, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Yemen.”

In Yemen, the international community has followed the customary formula of using state-building to get to peace. Stability comes from a state that is strong, cohesive, and capable. Secession leads to a slippery slope of state fragmentation. Power-sharing can entice recalcitrant groups to submit to state control in return for access to state resources, and will ultimately enhance the state’s legitimacy.

In the case of Yemen, the approach taken in the Houthi war will likely lead to more stringent resistance in the country’s other conflicts.

An alternative to state-building is to buttress the various forms of local order that have already emerged from the ashes of Yemen’s national implosion. Working from the bottom up, non-state actors can become the foundation of future hybrid stability. The best outcome is for Yemen to resemble Somalia, Moldova, or Cyprus, where weak central states co-exist with territories of consolidated separatist rule.

These arrangements are far from perfect; peace is still precarious, and political and economic development often stunted. But these may be better outcomes for Yemenis and the international community than further war – by Ariel I. Ahram

My comment: The Houthis are no Iranian proxy force, and Iran does not fight any proxy war in Yemen.

(* A P)

Official: Houthis admits the presence of 2,000 civilians in their prisons and deny 6,000

The al-Houthi group acknowledged the presence of 2,000 civilians in its jails and denied 6,000 others, said Majid Fadhael, a member of the government team in the release of prisoners and abductees committee.

The upcoming Amman meeting will determine the fate of more than 16,000 captives, abductees and missing persons, including 2,000 who have been recognized by the Houthis, and the remaining number will be discussed, said Saudi Arabia's Okaz newspaper quoting the undersecretary of the Ministry of Human Rights.

"On Tuesday and Wednesday, the names that have been denied by the militia will be discussed and we will provide compelling evidence that they are still in Houthi jails," he said.

He pointed out that the names submitted by the Government of more than 9,000 abductees were all civilians, and that the abductees were missing and forcibly hidden.

cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia

Mohammed bin Salman Is Running Saudi Arabia Like a Man Who Got Away With Murder

The Saudi Ministry of Media has rejected the claims of torture as “baseless,” and has denied human rights observers any access to the prisoners.

It should come as no surprise that the Saudi regime has little to say on the matter. Such dismissiveness is to be expected from a monarch who, far from being deposed by the Khashoggi scandal, now has the confidence of a man who has gotten away with murder. Unleashed and unrepentant, bin Salman’s campaign against dissent continues unabated — and, as the Amnesty report shows, has targeted the women he promised to liberate in unprecedented ways.

The coinciding reports from the General Entertainment Authority and Amnesty represent more than dark irony: They are also a re-enactment of one of bin Salman’s earliest tactics. Such aggressively enthusiastic, Western-centric campaigns were a prominent feature of the early years of bin Salman’s reign, when the ascendant prince wowed the world by re-introducing movie theaters and live concerts to the kingdom. At the time, many Saudis and non-Saudis alike were so struck with the spectacle of Saudi’s sudden embrace of Hollywood films and Cirque du Soleils that the crown prince’s emerging authoritarianism went largely unnoticed. Busy remarking on superficial social reforms, Western media neglected — or declined — to press bin Salman on his crackdowns on free speech, his censorship of the local press, the ongoing carnage in Yemen, or his failure to address the country’s legalized gender discrimination.

This reckless silence extended even as the crown prince’s abuses grew more brazen

EVEN AFTER THE arrests, the world persisted in lauding bin Salman as a pioneer of reform. Meanwhile, he was quietly bringing Saudi’s human rights record to new lows.

Such mistreatment is not only an egregious violation of international law, but also a dramatic departure in the context of patriarchal codes of decency in the kingdom. These social conventions can frequently be covers for gender violence and oppression, yet they also generally constrain what is acceptable in the public sector. The tabloidesque defamation of al-Hathloul and others, as well as the blatantly sexual nature of their abuse, transgresses them all.

As one regional human rights observer told me, women political prisoners were rare before bin Salman, and such public smear campaigns and physical violence “would have been unheard of just a few years before.”

Such shocking new tactics should have been taken as a warning, but the women’s arrests in the summer of 2018 generated little more than a murmur from the foreign press. At the time, too many were still enamored with bin Salman and distracted by the long-awaited end to the ban on women drivers.

The global scandal of Khashoggi’s murder forced a much-belated reckoning with the true nature of bin Salman’s rule. For a moment, international outrage seemed to approach proportionality with the regime’s ongoing crimes, perhaps strong enough to diminish bin Salman’s influence for good.

Yet the reckoning was fleeting. As the weeks passed and the kingdom’s key allies and trading partners — most notably the U.S. but also many European nations — failed to meaningfully sanction the crown prince, bin Salman began to maneuver back into the global political landscape. With U.S. President Donald Trump’s early, frequent, and vociferous defenses ringing in his ear — as well as the ongoing trade and diplomatic relations with countries like the U.K. and France — the message bin Salman received was not one of censure, but of tacit absolution.

The crown prince has not only maintained his power, but intends push forward his unilateral “Vision 2030” agenda, complete with self-congratulatory fanfare. Since Khashoggi’s death, bin Salman has continued to court global capital.

While the Saudi government under bin Salman pursues American entertainers, opens wax museums, and rolls out hashtags, untold numbers of political prisoners remain in detention.

It is hard to imagine what, if not the global scandals of Jamal Khashoggi and Rahaf al-Qanun, will prompt enough meaningful action to censure bin Salman. As bin Salman resumes his efforts to distract and entertain his way back into popular acclaim, it is incumbent on the watching world to refuse, anymore, to blink – by Sarah Aziza

In a remote northern corner of Saudi Arabia sit the relics of an ancient civilization, which the kingdom hopes to turn into a global tourism destination as it tries to open up to the world and diversify its economy away from oil.

Backed by billions of dollars in state-led investment and a French cultural partnership, the authorities expect al-Ula and its majestic rock-hewn tombs of Madain Saleh could eventually attract millions of visitors, local and foreign alike.

That is generating excitement in the kingdom, while upending a superstition among many Saudis - and long-backed by religious edicts - that the area is haunted by jinn, the malevolent spirits of the Koran and Arabian mythology, and must be avoided.

Comment by Afrah Nasser: Saudi Arabia is suddenly investing in its own heritage sites, while systmatically has been destroying most of Yemen's ancient cultural property and monuments over the past four years

Saudi Arabia has launched a new office to monitor state spending, saying it would help keep up the fight against corruption after the closing of a 15-month crackdown, state media reported.

The financial reporting office would be part of the state’s General Auditing Bureau, which watches out for financial discrepancies, public prosecutor Saud al-Mojeb was quoted as saying on Monday by state news agency SPA.

Saudi whistle-blower Mujtahid, who is believed to be a member of or have a well-connected source in the royal family, disclosed that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has ordered doctors monitoring the King's health conditions to speed up his death.

"He (bin Salman) has made his father busy with gambling and debauchery and has ordered his medical team to increase dozes of King Salman's drugs so that he can ascend to the throne after his father's death due to overdose of medicine," Mujtahid wrote on his twitter page on Monday.

The whistle-blower added that he will inform people of the Saudi king's health conditions as promised before.

A Saudi dissident figure had also last year revealed plots by the MbS to oust his father from ruling Saudi Arabia.

"Bin Salman intends to treat his father the same way he did in the case of former crown prince and his cousin Mohamed bin Nayef," Sultan al-Abdoli al-Qamedi said.

He added that King Salman had grown weak and incapable of resisting against his son's plans to take control of the royal palace and change the old guards.

"Bin Salman will not wait for his father to resign and will make him leave power anytime that he thinks is proper," al-Qamedi said.

Also in 2018, sources close to the Saudi royal palace had revealed that the Saudi king had said in a private gathering that he did not feel any necessity for transition of power to the crown prince as he was still able to fulfill his responsibilities.

They added that the medical tests had, meantime, diagnosed King Salman with severe fatigue and respiratory problems.

British lawmakers say highest Saudi authorities may be responsible for activists' torture

Three British lawmakers on Monday endorsed reports that women activists detained in Saudi Arabia have been tortured, and said responsibility for what is likely a violation of international law could lie with “Saudi authorities at the highest level”.

British lawmakers Crispin Blunt, Layla Moran and Paul Williams said they found reports by international rights groups and news media to be credible, describing the detainees’ treatment as “cruel, inhuman and degrading”.

The lawmakers, who formed a review panel with prominent lawyers, said the Saudi authorities had also violated international law by holding the detainees incommunicado and denying them access to legal advice.

Culpability rests not only with direct perpetrators but also those who are responsible for or acquiesce to it, they added.

“The Saudi authorities at the highest levels could, in principle, be responsible for the crime of torture,” their final report said.

While female activists remain locked up in Saudi Arabia, there can be no return to business as usual

SAUDI ARABIA’S campaign to restore its international reputation kicked into high gear this last week.

The objective here is clear: to resume normal commerce between Saudi Arabia and the democratic world, and attract desperately needed investment, without meaningful change in the regime controlled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It’s in the interest of the United States and its allies, as well as Saudi Arabia itself, that this strategy fail.

The 33-year-old crown prince has suppressed real and perceived opponents with a brutality that is unprecedented in Saudi history.

The regime promised accountability for the Khashoggi killing, but in practice continues to stonewall.

The Trump administration appears content to accept all this. But success by Mohammed bin Salman in resuming normal relations will have bad long-term consequences. He will be encouraged to continue his reckless international adventures, which have ranged from kidnapping the Lebanese prime minister to the deliberate bombing of civilian targets in Yemen. He will continue to imprison and torture the best and brightest Saudis, who seek peaceful reforms in a hidebound political and social system.

Mohammed bin Salman’s apologists frequently speak of the need to preserve “stability” in the kingdom. But it is unstable now, and becoming more so. The best way to foster genuine equilibrium is for Western governments, investors and entertainers to shun the regime until it puts on more than a show of change.

The lure of asylum-seeking has been compounded, activists and analysts say, by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's campaign to stamp out dissent in the kingdom. In recent years, he has ordered the rounding up of scores of high-profile clerics, analysts, businessmen and princes, as well as women's rights defenders who were allegedly tortured and who authorities accuse of "suspicious contact" with foreign entities.

The Saudi government has denied the allegations of torture and said it does not "condone, promote or allow the use of torture."

Saudi refugees on the rise

The number of Saudi refugees globally has increased in recent years. In 1993, the first year with recorded cases of Saudi asylum-seekers, there were seven Saudi refugees, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR). They took up residence in Jordan, Greece and Sweden.

According to the UNHCR's latest public records, Saudi refugees and asylum-seekers totaled 2,392 in 2017. Five countries hosted the majority of these Saudis: the United States (1,143), Canada (453), Australia (191), the United Kingdom (184) and Germany (147).

The figure ebbed and flowed from 1993 onwards. It spiked in 2006 and tapered in ensuing years. The number of Saudi refugees rose again after the 2011 Arab Spring, which spurred unrest in the kingdom's eastern province.

"You have people fleeing political repression, and that's very easily tied to MBS and what he's done. And I think that the number (of refugees and asylum-seekers) you're seeing here is indicative of that," Human Rights Watch Middle East researcher Adam Coogle told CNN.

"We were lucky enough to be advised by the US Embassy," Ahmadi, whose mother is a US citizen, told CNN. "Even if it was just for a layover, they knew that the chances of being hunted down in a different airport ... was a very much likely possibility."

Saudi Arabia has not responded to CNN's request for comment about the women's cases.

Saudi men have also been part of the growing numbers of refugees and asylum-seekers in the kingdom.

Lawyer Taha al-Hajji arrived in Germany in 2016 among tens of thousands of Syrian refugees. He had been representing activists in Saudi Arabia's eastern province of Qatif – by Tamara Qiblawi

A story of oil, wealth, power and shifting fortunes - the fate of a company and kingdom.

For the past two years, Saudi Arabia has prepared to place its national oil company on the stock market.

Officials talked up the Saudi Aramco initial public offering (IPO) with international exchanges and global banks. It seemed like a great idea that the world's largest oil producing company, valued at $2tn, would become the world's largest ever traded stock.

There are many companies in the world which move and shake markets but perhaps no other organisation essential to running a country. Aramco is unique and it runs no ordinary country. Saudi Arabia plays a key role in moving global oil prices.

The oil market affects everyone on the planet directly or indirectly. Oil prices have developed and destroyed economies - Sudan and Venezuela being the most recent examples.

So Aramco shedding its cloak of secrecy and deciding to go public is a huge deal - especially for Saudi Arabia which is run by a monarchy and its affairs cannot be publicly evaluated or scrutinised.

The kingdom holds about 16 percent of the world's oil reserves and is the largest exporter of petroleum among OPEC countries. Nearly half of the country's gross domestic product comes from oil and Aramco itself employs 65,000 people.

The concerns about radical changes in strategy put a spanner in the works for Saudi Aramco's public listing. For the first time in its history, an IPO would bring full public disclosure of Aramco's financial details, a feat that has never been made public.

"Probably the biggest downside is the transparency that would have resulted around Saudi oil reserves," says Krane, a number that doesn't move beyond 260 billion barrels.

Saudi Aramco: The Company and the State examines the reasons behind the ambitious offering, the politics of Saudi oil, the strategic importance of Aramco, a faulty evaluation, the challenges of transparency and what it means for an ambitious prince's Vision 2030.

Almost 15 months after rounding up dozens of Saudi Arabia’s richest and most powerful people and imprisoning them in Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has declared the raid a lucrative success. An anti-corruption commission headed by the crown prince said a total of about $107 billion — a mix of cash, real estate, companies and securities — has been recovered from 87 people.

Aside from confirming a $1 billion payment from the former head of the National Guard, the government has said little about the nature of the individual settlements. Less than four months ago, the crown prince told Bloomberg News that $35 billion had been collected from the prisoners. Verifying the commission’s claims is made more challenging by the opacity of the Saudi market.

cp8a Jamal Khashoggi

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Turkey: West Covers Khashoggi’s Killing in Exchange for Arms Deals with Riyadh

Turkey has attacked Western countries' handling of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying it was trying to cover up the case in exchange for arms deals with Riyadh. Turkish Foreign Minister Mouloud Zhaoshoglu described Western countries as claiming to defend human rights but was trying to cover up Khashoggi's murder for money and arms deals.

In a speech in Istanbul, according to the Anatolia Agency, Zhaooshoglu pointed out that the Saudi authorities had to recognize the crime due to transparent policies followed by Turkey. He stressed that "Turkey knows who killed Khashoggi and how, while countries that give everyone a lesson in human rights, trying to cover up today Khashoggi murder."

"Western countries that saw the money, began to silence, because they sign agreements one by one, and sell arms, unfortunately the world is hypocritical", he added. Since October 2, Khashoggi has been one of the most prominent issues on the international agenda.

Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said that "Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's statement about the departure of journalist Jamal Khashoggi from his consulate in Istanbul was a lie." This came during a televised interview, on the latest developments at the local, regional and international levels, with the Turkish radio and television channels TRT.

He explained how he could not understand the silence of the United States over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and that the Saudi authorities were obliged to answer all questions about the case.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday accused the United States of maintaining a "silence" on the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who killed by a Saudi hit team in the kingdom's Istanbul consulate.

"I cannot understand America's silence... We want everything to be clarified because there is an atrocity, there is a murder," Erdogan told an interview with state-run TRT television.

One week from today, President Trump must tell Congress whether he believes Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman is responsible for killing Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. However, this is assuming that Trump respects a requirement from Congress. Senate Foreign Relations Committee leaders, joined by a bipartisan group of 20 other senators, triggered the required determination due on February 8, as mandated by the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.

Whether the president responds will be an important test for how the White House interacts with the new Congress over Saudi policy, and whether the president will once again contradict the well founded views of the United States intelligence community. His action, or lack thereof, will in turn present Congress with a crucial challenge concerning the support shown by the administration for a reckless authoritarian ally.

The White House would be wise to adhere to the letter of federal law and the human rights policy objectives that the Global Magnitsky Act serves. Yet, there is good reason to think the president will run afoul of the law.

cp8b Saudi Arabien: Frauen / Saudi Arabia: Women

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Fleeing from Saudi

The women who make it and the ones who don’t

Hundreds of women have tried to escape Saudi Arabia in recent years, fleeing the strict male guardianship laws that control every aspect of their lives. Four Corners follows the stories of some of the women who attempt the desperate dash for freedom.

Life in Saudi

By the time she was 14, Nourah* was thinking about escape. The young Saudi woman was on Twitter watching the Arab Spring unfold across the Middle East, bringing hopes for freedom.

“It wasn’t just for those people, it wasn’t just for those countries. For me as a young woman, that made a lot of difference and I decided when I was 14, I’m going to leave this country,” she said.

Nourah’s life was controlled by men.

Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship laws mean women need permission from their guardian — a father, brother, husband, son or uncle — for the most basic activities. They can’t travel, go to school, get a job or marry without permission. Under Saudi law, their witness statements carry half the weight of a man’s.

“Any male from my family can control my life in any way. He can make the big decisions in my life including my partner, the future of my education, even if I went to hospital he had to sign for me,” Nourah said.

For Shahad, life in Saudi included constant beatings from her father. When she complained to her mother about the abuse, her father beat them both.

“My life in Saudi Arabia was like a slave since I was a little girl. I couldn’t do anything without the permission from my male guardian. My father was an abusive man,” she said.

Sisters Amal* and Amani* were also trapped with an abusive family. Others, like Ranya* and Rawan*, had no say in how they lived.

For many wealthy, well-educated Saudi women, it’s life in a gilded cage. For those who disobey their male guardians or the Saudi government, it’s been likened to a Handmaid’s Tale-style dystopia.

All women fear the Dal Al Reaya — the state-run institutions where women who resist the male guardianship system or ‘shame’ their families often end up. Even women who go to the police to report a crime can be sent here. Their only way out is if a male guardian comes and collects them. Sometimes women locked in the Dal Al Reaya will agree to marry perfect strangers as a way of leaving.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has been selling himself to the world as a reformer who has wound back some of the strict controls on women, like the ban on driving.

In reality, he’s been behind an unprecedented and brutal crackdown on Saudi female activists, with dozens arrested since May 2018 and thrown in jail.

Plotting the escape

In order to escape Saudi Arabia, women need permission from their male guardian to travel. Saudi Arabia’s far-reaching controls over women extend online, where men are able to grant travel permissions through a government-run app called Absher.

Absher can be used for every day functions like paying parking fines or renewing drivers licences, but it also allows men to change travel permissions and set up SMS alerts to let them know when a woman uses her passport at a border crossing or airport check-in.

Activists say some women manage to secretly access their guardian’s phone, often at night when they are asleep, and change the settings on their guardian’s Absher account.

In some cases, like the high-profile story of Rahaf Mohammad Al Qunun, women use the opportunity of a family holiday overseas to flee.

When Shahad and her family visited Turkey, she saw a chance to escape.

On the run

Getting a plane ticket and a passport was just the start of Ranya’s risky journey.

“I planned to leave the house in the middle of the night so no-one will notice me,” she said.

“It’s not only the airport system that scared me, every male in your way, he can stop you and question you where you are going. If he is suspicious of you, he will report you to the police.”

She feared even the taxi driver who took her to the airport would turn her in.

Capture

For women on the run, the horror story of Dina Ali Lasloom is not far from their minds.

In April 2017, Dina Ali was stopped in transit in Manila as she tried to flee to Australia.

Freedom

For Shahad, who was stranded in Georgia, freedom came when the UNHCR found out about her case and helped get her permanent residency in Sweden. She’s left a lot behind, including sisters who are still in Saudi Arabia.

Like Rahaf, who was granted asylum in Canada after her case went viral, Shahad is one of the lucky ones.

They hope the years spent planning their escapes will not be in vain and the Australian Government will allow them to stay.

“I live with this fear every day because I don’t know what’s going to happen to me if I went back to Saudi Arabia,” Nourah said.

Julia*, one such woman, knows all too well the dire situation for many women in the kingdom.

Every woman that escapes the kingdom has her own tale. But all of them start with a breaking point.

In the case of Julia, her forced marriage at the age of 27 to a man in his 60s was her limit.

“He was older than me. I was younger [than] him and beautiful, and virgin and pure for him. He was like really ugly, old rich guy; crazy” explains the former Saudi woman.

And then an opportunity presented itself.

In an effort to perhaps win-over his young bride, her husband said he was planning their honeymoon to Europe. “You will be happy and I can have sex with you. This is his planning” snaps Julia about her husband’s plan.

But she agreed and called her friends right away. “Ok, I will escape. This is my only chance” she told them and they all agreed that this was the perfect moment.

Asylum in France

According to OFPRA, the French Office to Protect Refugees and Stateless Persons, very few Saudis claim asylum in France, but of those who do, half are women, which is a telling number given they can’t even leave the country without authorization from their male guardian.

New reporting from Australia sheds light on the risks Saudi women face fleeing abuse, discrimination, or repression to seek safety in another country. According to ABC’s Four Corners, Australian authorities blocked entry to two Saudi women with valid visas at Sydney Airport over the past two years, presumably over concerns they would claim asylum. The report quoted a Saudi activist stating the Australian Border Force asked Saudi women why they are travelling without their male guardians, even though some Saudi women are fleeing them.

While many women fleeing Saudi Arabia expect to face difficulties on their journey, particularly attempts by Saudi authorities to interdict and return them against their will, they do not expect supposedly safe countries with developed asylum systems to stop and return them back over suspicions they will make an asylum claim.

Human Rights Watch has documented numerous escape attempts by Saudi women over the years. The successful January 2019 attempt by Rahaf Mohammad to flee alleged family abuse ended with her safe arrival in Canada. But not all cases have ended with success. In 2017, we reported on the forcible return of Dina Ali Lasloom from the Philippines to Saudi Arabia.

Australia’s fears over Saudi women claiming asylum don’t appear to stop at its borders. Four Corners also reports Australian authorities allegedly cancelled the visas of two Saudi sisters stranded in Hong Kong in September 2018 and prevented them from boarding a Qantas Airline flight to Sydney.

The risks of forced return for Saudi women are grave, as they can face family and government retaliation for their escape attempts, including physical harm, forced isolation, imprisonment, and, in the most serious cases, murder at the hands of family members. All Saudi women face systematic discrimination under the male guardianship system and are left exposed to domestic violence with few places to turn (with film)

Saudi Arabia will study how its male guardianship system is being abused, Saudi media reported on Monday, after the flight of an 18-year-old woman to Thailand last month focused global attention on the issue.

Every Saudi woman is assigned a male relative - often a father or husband but sometimes an uncle, brother or even a son - whose approval is needed to marry, obtain a passport and travel abroad.

Rights groups say the arrangement turns women into second-class citizens, depriving them of social and economic freedoms and making them more vulnerable to violence.

Without a codified system of law to go with the texts making up sharia, or Islamic law, the Saudi police and judiciary have long cited social customs in enforcing certain prohibitions on women. Many aspects of guardianship stem from informal practices rather than specific laws.

Saudi public prosecutor Saud al-Mojeb said his office would “spare no efforts in protecting individuals, whether women, children or parents, from unfair treatment by those who abuse guardianship powers,” according to English daily Saudi Gazette.

My comment: It’s great if the case of this teen girl would have caused real consequences. But, be honest: It’s odd just to speak of “abuse of male guardianship system”, this would imply that there could be any correct “use” of it. – The whole “male guardianship system” is a case for the trash bin of history. At first, stop this:

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Saudi Arabia runs a huge, sinister online database of women that men use to track them and stop them from running away

A sprawling database of women in Saudi Arabia that men use to bar them from travel

As well as physical restrictions and social pressure, al-Mohaimeed had to navigate a sophisticated online system to escape. Her father's phone - the one she stole that night in Trabzon - would have given him access to a Saudi government system called "Absher."

Absher means "the preacher" in Arabic. It is the state-run system that contains the online expression of Saudi Arabia's restrictive male-guardianship laws.

The Absher system - little-discussed in Western media - contains a log of women in Saudi Arabia and the means to bar them from travel or catch them trying to leave without permission.

Many of Absher's functions are benign and would not be out of place in any local or national government online portal. You can use it to pay parking fines or renew a driver's license.

Vitally, Saudi men can also use this site to specify when and where women are allowed to fly out of the country and grant or revoke travel permission with a few clicks, rendering specific airports or destinations off-limits.

Men can also enable an automatic SMS feature, which texts them when a woman uses her passport at a border crossing or airport check-in.

Any attempt to leave would be blocked as soon as her passport was checked at an airport. Even if she were to make it out, she would leave a digital trail making her easy to find.

At least 1,000 women try to flee Saudi Arabia each year, and experts told INSIDER the text alerts had enabled many men to catch family members before they make it out.

Getting around this system has become a critical step for women like al-Mohaimeed who try to run away from Saudi Arabia.

How Absher works

INSIDER spoke with activists and Saudi refugees about Absher, the computer system that makes fleeing directly from Saudi Arabia so difficult. We also obtained screenshots from the site that show how it works.

"Total Dependents Outside" refers to women outside Saudi Arabia, like those studying abroad at a university or on vacation.

A second screenshot, from deeper inside the website, shows a screen for managing travel permissions.

Men can specify numerous journeys women are allowed to take or specify a time period in which they can travel.

The alert system is one of the main reasons women trying to flee Saudi Arabia get caught, because it tips their guardians off while they can still be apprehended, according to Dr. Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a Saudi refugee who fled to Germany.

Adam Coogle, a Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch, also told INSIDER about the SMS alerts and corroborated al-Abdulmohsen's story.

This page on Absher shows how to cancel travel permissions on a dependent's passport:

'Social media is showing women getting out, smiling, surviving'

Despite cautionary tales like this, the support networks between women are strengthening, and escape attempts are on the rise, the experts told INSIDER.

al-Abdulmohsen told INSIDER there were numerous forums and groups where women and girls shared tips for escaping – by Bill Bostock (images)

cp9 USA

Siehe / Look at cp1, cp8a

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US general expresses support for Saudi coalition after CNN report on weapons in Yemen

The top United States military commander in the Middle East suggested Tuesday that America would continue to back its allies waging war in Yemen, despite new evidence of arms deal violations uncovered by a CNN investigation.

Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of Central Command (CENTCOM), told a Senate hearing on Tuesday that withdrawing US support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen would remove the "leverage we have to continue to influence them" and could further endanger Americans in the region.

Votel said the military was "looking more closely at the allegations" in CNN's report, published Monday, which revealed that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had transferred US-made weapons to al Qaeda-linked fighters, hardline Salafi militias, and other groups on the ground.

Responding to a question during the hearing from Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen on CNN's report, Votel said: "We have not authorized Saudi Arabia or the Emirates to retransfer any of this equipment to other parties on the ground in Yemen."

Shaheen pressed Votel on how the Pentagon planned to address the finding in the CNN report that US weapons had ended up in the hands of Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran.

"In legislation that we passed relative to Yemen, there are requirements for us to certify how the Saudis are using weapons, and so far we have not gotten authoritative certification of how those weapons are being used," Shaheen said.

U.S. media sources have indicated that a group within congress is considering reproducing a version of the resolution that passed the Senate 56-41 last month to rebuke the White House and Saudi Arabia following the Khashoggi murder. The U.S. public appears to be largely against the U.S. military cooperation in Yemen, mainly blaming Saudi Arabia, and in particular MBS, for the crisis. The U.S. Congress appears to now be reflecting public opinion. This resolution would put limits on the amount and type of U.S. support in Yemen. Senators, such as Mike Lee, R-Utah, state that the decision to support the coalition, which was taken by President Obama and Trump, has never been voted on and approved by Congress. The support for a new U.S. strategy is wide.

In the Middle East more broadly, Trump’s strategy is failing to instill confidence in the two Arab leaders at the center of this struggle.

The ongoing threat of a full withdrawal of U.S. troops and the abandonment of Kurdish forces in Syria has sent shivers down the spines of both MBS and MBZ. The two young leaders, currently heavily engaged in transforming their own societies and economies, are aware that Washington’s support for these two key U.S. allies could be changed by one tweet. Trump’s support appears, from the outside at least, to be based on an emotional rather than rational approach.

The most visible sign that MBS and MBZ are considering changing sides, and decreasing their full support of Washington in the U.S., is the fact that neither have flown to the U.S. for a notable period of time. For Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, it is clear that a trip to the USA is both a legal and political risk.

If the two Arab crown princes face increased pressure from either the U.S. Congress or the Muller investigation, a major break in US-GCC relations is to be expected. This will not only impact the geopolitical and military operations of the U.S. and its European allies, but also will have a direct negative result for OPEC’s position towards the U.S. – By Cyril Widdershoven

[On the border between Canada and the #US there is a public library which, thanks to its border position, has become the ideal place for those who cannot go to find their loved ones in the #US due to the #MuslimBanimposed by president Trump to those coming from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and #Yemen]

cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain

The neutrality of the chief gatekeeper to the UK’s arms control regime has been brought into question after he repeatedly attacked the integrity of British NGOs’ claims about civilian deaths in Yemen.

Graham Jones, a Labour MP and chair of the Commons committees on arms export controls (CAEC), also said that blame for the war in Yemen lay primarily with Iran, and not the west or Saudi Arabia.

Jones is the most senior parliamentarian overseeing Britain’s arms control regime, including the lawfulness of UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Jones told the defence select committee that NGOs were “dishonest” in their reporting. “We see it time and time again with regards to airstrikes – there is a gross exaggeration by NGOs as to what has happened. You just have to pick up the newspaper. The examples they finally do get to attribute, you suddenly find after investigating they are inaccurate and grossly inaccurate.”

Jones said there was “a constant stream of stories” generated by NGOs based on so-called evidence that turned out to be false.

NGOs working in the region are privately furious at what they regard as a belittling of their legitimate efforts to highlight the number of civilian casualties caused by Saudi air strikes. They insist they have also called out Houthi war crimes, but point out the UK is supplying weapons to the Saudis and not the Houthis.

These assessments were countered by Andrew Smith of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT). Speaking to RT, Smith said that the Saudi-led bombardment on Yemen had caused the “worst humanitarian crisis in the world.”

“There is no doubt that atrocities have been committed on all sides, but that can be no justification for the brutal bombing which has killed thousands of people and destroyed vital infrastructure across Yemen,” he said.

Disputing Jones with the UN’s own statistics, Smith added that the “majority of child deaths in Yemen have been caused by Saudi bombs. Many of the fighter jets, missiles and bombs being used are made here in the UK.”

Questioning how Jones was “still a Labour MP,” the journalist and activist Owen Jones tweeted: “While the Saudi dictatorship reduces Yemen to the world's worst humanitarian crisis and murders kids with British bombs, pro-Saudi shill @GrahamJones_MP attacks the integrity of NGOs on the ground who are reporting the truth.

The UK has been accused of abdicating its moral responsibility by taking part in joint military exercises with Saudi Arabia amid growing international condemnation over its role in Yemen’s brutal civil war.

Around 100 Royal Navy personnel are to participate in the five-day drill with Saudi forces this week, with a second operation involving the British Army scheduled for March.

Writing in The Independent, the shadow defence secretary Nia Griffiths says: “It simply beggars belief that we would even consider a joint exercise with the very same Saudi Navy which blockades key ports in Yemen, thereby exacerbating the starvation and suffering of the Yemeni people.”

“To go ahead with these exercises not only represents a complete abdication of this country’s moral responsibility, it also reveals a bleak, pessimistic view of Britain’s place in the world,” Griffiths added.

Witnesses and activists have accused Australian Border Force officers of targeting Saudi Arabian women whom they suspect will apply for asylum and blocking them from entering the country when they arrive at Australian airports.

Four Corners has evidence of at least two young Saudi women who arrived at Sydney Airport in the past two years but were turned back after making their asylum claims clear to Australian officials.

Four Corners has also been told that Saudi women who arrive alone at Australian airports are being questioned as to why they are travelling without a male guardian.

At least 80 Saudi women have sought asylum in Australia in recent years, many of them fleeing Saudi Arabia's oppressive male guardianship laws

Pope says he found 'good will' from UAE leaders to seek peace in Yemen

Pope Francis said on Tuesday he had found “good will” to start peace processes to end the conflict in Yemen, during private meetings with leaders of the United Arab Emirates, which is playing a leading role in a Saudi-led coalition against Houthis in Yemen.

Francis, who in the past has condemned the war in Yemen several times, made the comment in response to a question on the plane returning from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

“I spoke about it, but just with just a few people,” Francis said when asked if he had discussed Yemen during his meeting with Crown Prince Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan and other leaders.

Francis, who has made outreach to Muslim communities a cornerstone of his papacy, is on an historic three-day visit to the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE is involved in the wars in Yemen, Syria and Libya.

The pope said the consequences of the war in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East "are before our eyes".

Francis warned the future of humanity was at stake unless religions come together to resist the "logic of armed power ... the arming of borders, the raising of walls".

"There is no alternative: we will either build the future together or there will not be a future," said Francis.

He also called for religious equality in the region.

At the end of the interfaith meeting, Francis and Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb - the grand imam of Egypt's Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in Sunni Islam - signed a joint statement on "human fraternity" and their hopes for world peace.

They then laid the cornerstones for a new church and mosque to be built side-by-side in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi.

Pope Francis on Sunday became the first pontiff to set foot on the Arabian Peninsula, just hours after issuing his strongest condemnation yet of the war in Yemen, where his host the United Arab Emirates has a leading military role.

Shortly before departing for Abu Dhabi, Pope Francis said he was following the humanitarian crisis in Yemen with great concern, using his regular Sunday address in Vatican City to urge all sides to implement a fragile peace deal and help deliver aid to millions of hungry people.

The UAE welcomed the Pope’s message on Yemen and believes the peace deal he referred to was a historic breakthrough, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash wrote on Twitter.

“Let us assure its implementation and make 2019 the year of peace in Yemen,” he said after the pope landed in Abu Dhabi.

Francis was greeted by Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who escorted him to meet Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar mosque and university, one of the main seats of learning of Sunni Islam. The pontiff embraced him.

Pope Francis became the first pontiff to set foot on the Arabian Peninsula on Monday, as he received a pompous welcome in the United Arab Emirates, just after he slammed the bloody Yemen war they help to spearhead.

The Emirates have rolled out the welcome mat for Francis, who was greeted by Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan and his entourage on Monday. The pontiff arrived with a delegation of clerics and was presented a bouquet of flowers. The papal visit, a first of its kind to the Islam-dominated Arabian Peninsula, will continue on Tuesday with a much-awaited mess for about 135,000 Catholics. Top UAE officials and Muslim religious leaders are expected to attend it.

Vatican officials have said it is not clear whether Pope Francis will address the sensitive subject [Yemen] in public or private during his visit to Abu Dhabi, which is aimed at promoting interfaith dialogue.

The pope will spend less than 48 hours in the UAE, where he will meet Muslim leaders and celebrate an outdoor mass for some 120,000 Catholics.

He has said the trip is an opportunity to write 'a new page in the history of relations between religions'.

The pope will also meet Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Egypt's Al-Azhar mosque and university, the 1,000-year-old seat of Sunni Muslim learning.

The meeting will be held in Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

Francis is travelling to Abu Dhabi to participate in a conference on inter-religious dialogue sponsored by the Emirates-based Muslim Council of Elders, an initiative that seeks to counter religious fanaticism by promoting a moderate brand of Islam.

Francis's other main initiative in Abu Dhabi is a giant Mass on Tuesday in the city's main sports arena that is expected to draw some 135,000 people in what some have called the largest show of public Christian worship on the Arabian Peninsula.

Pope Francis, who will travel to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, said he is following the humanitarian crisis in Yemen with great worry and urged all sides to respect international agreements and ensure food reaches suffering Yemenis.

“The population is exhausted by the long conflict and many, many children are suffering from hunger but they are not able to get to food deposits. The cry of these children and their parents rises up to God,” he told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square during his regular Sunday address.

“I appeal to all sides involved and to the international community to urgently press for respect of the agreements that have been reached, to guarantee the distribution of food, and work for the good of the population.”

“There are children who are hungry, they are thirsty, they don’t have medicine,” he added.

Pope Francis starts a landmark, three-day visit to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, becoming the first pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church to visit the Arabian Peninsula.

The visit offers a rare note of hope for Christians in the Middle East

The pope’s presence in the Gulf — an area where religious freedom has traditionally been highly restricted — will shine a light on the broader role of Christianity in the Middle East. Before his plane took off, the pope also addressed the situation in Yemen,

Christianity has been threatened, particularly in the Gulf.

Wars, jihadist violence and sectarian tensions have reduced the proportion of Christians in the Middle East to about 4 percent of the population today, from about 20 percent before World War I, according to the Vatican.

One of the pope’s main goals in his visit, church officials said, is to continue working with Muslim leaders in the hopes of making the Middle East and the Muslim world safer and more hospitable for Christians.

Pope Francis should use his upcoming visit to the United Arab Emirates to press the government to address the serious human rights violations by its forces in Yemen and to end its repression of critics at home, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to the pope. The pope is to attend the International Interfaith Meeting on Human Fraternity in the United Arab Emirates on February 4, 2019.

The United Arab Emirates has branded a bridge, a new ministry, a family day at the park and even the entire year of 2019 under the banner theme of “tolerance,” an elaborate effort that’s in overdrive as the country prepares to host Pope Francis starting Sunday in the first-ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula.

The state’s tolerance-themed project, however, has hard limits. While allowing churches and other places of worship to exist, and marking holidays like Christmas, the Hindu Diwali and Chinese New Year with festivals and celebrations, the government has simultaneously stomped out critical political expression in the name of national security.

Human rights activists and Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers have been imprisoned, academic research deemed sensitive has been curtailed and human rights groups have been barred entry. Political parties are banned and local media are censored.

And while the law prohibits religious discrimination and guarantees the freedom to exercise religious worship, the state’s official religion of Islam is tightly monitored and controlled.

cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade

Siehe / Look at cp1

cp13b Wirtschaft / Economy

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Riyal recollapses and calls for government to disclose results of Yemeni central corruption investigation

Yemeni Riyal continues to deteriorate to foreign exchange by speculation among cashiers, and the Government's failure to address the country's financial situation to date, amid demands that the results of the investigation into the corruption operations in the central bank of Yemen be announced.

"The exchange rate has reached 600 riyals/ USD, while the Saudi Riyal has reached 157 in the past hours," said cashiers in identical statements to Al-Masdar online.

They warned that the collapse of the riyal may continue if the Government fails to implement any solutions and that the scenario of the major collapse of last September may return again as the local currency collapsed and lost about 90% of its value in two weeks.

The price of the dollar reached 800 riyals at the time.

The government began working to address the economic situation, the real recovery of the riyal and the exchange rate reached 350 riyals for the dollar, and the conditions were ready for farther improvemnt.

But the governor of the Central Bank of Yemen came out with a statement and said that the fair price of the dollar is 450 riyals, as a result of that statement the price rises within hours only to 520 riyals.

To date, the Bank is unable to achieve the fair price.

The bank's governor, Mohammad Zammam, was accused of causing market turmoil, which became apparent after the Economic Commission uncovered a major corruption in the central bank, where officials turned into currency speculators, and the amount of money learned by the bank's governor and officials amounted to about 9 billion Yemeni riyals in a month, with respect to Saudi riyals only.

The Pro-aggression Prim Minister, Moin Abdulmalik, and the governor of the Bank of Aden, Mohammed Zemam, has left Aden on the background of a new collapse of the national currency against foreign currencies.

According to the media, the departure of Abdulmalik and Zamam from Aden to Riyadh is an escape after the scandal. The so-called Chairman of the Economic Committee Hafez Muayad has came out to and exposed some of the practices targeting the nactional currency. Some analysits think that their depture to Riyadh is due to a request from Riyadh over their failure to implement the Saudi agenda in the south.

Hafez Muayyad, leaked documents exposing the Governor of Aden's Bank. Mohamed Zemmam manipulation of the national currency is a clear evidence of their involvment behind the events that lead to the collapse of the local currency.

‪investigation: a network from Yemen reveals properties owned by Yemeni officials/relatives on #PalmIsland in #Dubai est. Value between $650mil-3.8bil USD, this was part of a joint venture, Foundation for Combating organized crime and Corruption (OCCRP) and network

The Govt of Yemen congratulates @YAMAMerchants for its establishment and expresses its utmost best wishes with its endeavors, which will have positive impacts for our citizens in cities and communities in the #USA and in #Yemen (images)

cp15 Propaganda

My comment: This is what an Israelian site is making of the CNN article linked in cp1. Well, “Iran” certainly not is getting hold of any US weapons in Yemen.

(A P)

Peace with Houthis is next to impossible

As every new plan for holding peace talks is announced I say that "Peace with Houthis is Next to Impossible" under this same title. I asserted it when the Geneva talks, Stockholm talks, and now the Jordan talks, were announced.

The Houthis as I always reiterate have never had and will never have an desire a peace that leads to real sharing of power with others.

The problem is not about reconciling any interests between the government and Houthis. The problem lies squarely in the DNA of this maximalist religious organization. Which makes peace with them next to impossible.

Comment: At same time as posting numerous articles vilifying govt of US UK regime change target #Venezuela, BBC posts a fawning front page PR piece that glosses over repression & torture to describe US UK dictatorship ally #Bahrain as a great place to work and live

Downing Spy Plane, Seizing Weapons in a Large Offensive Operation in Jizan

The Army and the Popular Committees launched a large offensive focused on the villages in Jizan, downing a spy aircraft and seizing a quantity of weapons in the offensive.

The source added that the attack was preceded with heavy shelling by rockets and artillery bombardment, pointing out that the Saudi aerial aggression failed to impede the progress of the Army and Committees

ACLED: Houthi forces have laid over a million land and sea mines since war started, turning Yemen into “the most-mined nation since World War II” (Associated Press, 24 December 2018). 297 civilians killed. Masam says 920 civilians may have been killed & 1000s injured since 2014.

VIDEO: #Saudi-led Coalition airstrikes on Jan. 23rd that took out an entire Military Training Camp of the #Houthi militia in Dawran Aness District, Dhamar. The #Iran-ian backed militia suffered more than 270 losses.

In Aden, a southern port city scarred by Yemen’s nearly four-year-old civil war, the reopening of a fine arts institute is raising the hopes of many that the restorative power of art will help heal divisions in a suffering and deeply fractured nation.

The Jameel Ghanem Institute of Fine Arts was forced to the brink of closure early in 2015 when militias fought for control of the city and government funds dried up.

Now, with Aden relatively calm, compared to the devastation inflicted elsewhere in a nation facing what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, the institute is undergoing a revival, and so are the dreams of scores of children and young people who are studying music, theater, painting, art and dance.

“The youth of Aden are looking for art and life,” said Fouad Muqbil, the institute’s

Meet Mazher Nizar is an award-winning Yemeni artist. For the past 35 years, he has represented Yemen on national and international competitions and exhibitions. He has worked with several mediums like oil-acrylic, mixed media and watercolor. An eclectic artist, Mazher creates both realist and abstract art.

On a recent visit to the Yemen Arab Republic, even before I left the National Airport, I was impressed by the fact that so many adult males, and even some adoles­cents, who had come to meet the plane were still wearing the traditional Arabian dagger called jambiya. The jambiya is a characteristic form of dagger that is worn throughout the Arab World and wherever Arabian influence has penetrated historically, though it may differ in form or shape from one area to another. The word actually means “something worn at one’s right side” (from the triliteral root j-n-b), and probably because of that, the very few Western writers who have even mentioned them have described them as “daggers worn on the right side.” Actually, on the Arabian peninsula in general and in neighboring Iraq, this dagger has customarily been worn exactly in front of the body, as it still is in Yemen.

The Yemeni type of jambiya generally has a curved, double-edged blade, rather broad where it leaves the hilt and gradually tapering toward its tip, with a protruding midrib extending down its entire length.